Okay folks, this is crude, rude and down and dirty. The real stories from behind the curtain of a Director of Marketing Operations of a global organization. It will feature the fumbles, the trials, the tribulations and the successes. It is a real look at what a day in the life looks like. For the next 12 weeks I will post my journey in hopes that I might help someone else out with lessons learned.

Week One.

I started this week reviewing an audit that our consulting company did. I asked a lot of questions. Note to self, asking questions is and excellent way to peel the onion and see what's truly inside. As I asked more and more questions, I realized we had a big road ahead. Between dirty data, lead routing and lead management opportunities, the room for possibility seemed to grow by the second. So now what?

I knew I had to prioritize. So here is how I chose to look at my first week:

1. Dive into the Data. Get to know the data intimately. How did I do this? I ran tests and more tests. I followed the breadcrumbs as I discovered yet more areas of opportunity. Code that some thought should be working was not. Leads flowed to places they shouldn't. Good leads, the golden nuggets, were getting buried alive. I had to know this data inside and out.

2. Create a Lead Management Playbook. At the very least, get everyone on the same page as everyone else about lead definitions and the lead lifecycle. I began to ask questions. Remember, questions are your key to getting the gold. I realized that many people had many different opinions about what is a good lead. I interviewed sales, SDR teams, marketing and exec's. I received as many different variations as I asked. This told me we had a communication opportunity for improvement. The playbook isn't done by any means, but hey, it's a great start.

3. Fourth quarter blues...Figure out anyway possible to clear the runway for a strong fourth quarter. Get rid of as much dirty data that was clogging the pipes as possible. Remove any dirt that was covering the gold. How did I do this? I worked with a few SDR sales reps to call out on potential golden nuggets. The first few times were a disaster as we ended up calling 10 year old kids. Next, we got a little warmer. Finally, we hit some gold. Now, how to duplicate that.

Here's to the next week. Message me your scary stories and perhaps they can be in another episode of Diaries of a Marketing Ops Director!